High nitrites

[kris10]

Ok so this tank was a angelfish tank for years, a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make a switch to discus. I switched the tank from gravel to sand, planted it, and bought a few tetras. It's been running for at least three weeks. The ph is 7.0, the nitrates NO2 is 0ppm but the nitrites NO3 is over 140ppm!! This is also my first time with the API master kit but I did it three times because I was so shocked and it was the same every time. What do you do for high nitrites? Could it be the sand? What makes them high? Everything else is perfect and the tank is not dirty.


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[sealife]

During this whole process of change, you have killed of some beneficial bacteria.
Your tank will need to establish itself again. Like a mini cycle.

Because you have fish, water changes will be needed to keep chemistry correct for fish.

Or you can remove fish, and cycle it fishless. So no fish are harmed.
(fish in cycle is possible with tetras, not easy though. I prefer fishless.)

[kris10]

That's Steve I did a small water change this morning. I also put a carbon from another fish tank in the filter, maybe that will help. All the fish seem to be doing great tho. I think I need some root tabs for my plants even though they seem fine I'm worried about them


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[Mattyfelts]

id be more worried about your fish with those trates...

think about it this way in terms of water changes (which should be done weekly)

140ppm.... change 50% = 70ppm [still not good]
140ppm.... change 75%= 35 ppm [still not good]
140ppm.... change 87.5= 17.5 ppm [still not great, not even close to good for discus]

your going to need to do a tonne more... how big a tank?

still wanting discus? they need daily-every other day water changes and need the most pristine water.

[Mattyfelts]

the carbon wont do much, you need the bio media (pellets, etc)

[stooker]

This is different from your other post. I guess you mixed up nitrites and nitrates? If it's nitrites you are seeing and zero nitrates, then your tank is cycling... with the fish in there just need to accomplish water changes as not to hurt them and wait until you start to see nitrates show up and see the nitrites start to drop. My guess is that your substrate change got rid of a lot of your bacteria, although it's weird that your nitrates went all the way to zero... if your tank was fully cycled before the substrate change, you should still see nitrates to some degree.

[kris10]

I apologise Steve my nitrates are high...my spell check keeps wanting to change the word. This is my first time using the API master kit and it's funny the nitrates are super high in all of my tanks while everything else is totally normal. There may be some kind of defect with this test or maybe I'm the defect lol. It just doesn't make since my other tanks are well established. I've had this tank up and running for at least 2-3 weeks so it should have had time to cycle I would think? I need to take some water to the pet store


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[kris10]

My nitrites today were barley 0.25ppm my nitrates still off the charts


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[stooker]

If it is indeed nitrAtes that are high, your option is water changes. Bacteria does not process nitrates, so one of the primary purposes of water changes is to remove them (among other things). You'll have to adjust your water change schedule accordingly to keep the nitrates at an acceptable level. If they continue to be high, there is something causing a high bioload in your tank.